STH-05 Hyakuren (Phoenix Rising)
The STH-05 Hyakuren '''is the first ever mobile suit produced by Copernicus Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of the Teiwaz Conglomerate of the Outer Spheres. Since its introduction several years before it has become an icon of both Teiwaz, its affiliates, and the Jovian Sphere as a whole. Design Overview Originally the Hyakuren was just a blueprint dated from the last months of the Calamity War which a subsidiary of Teiwaz managed to find somewhere in one of the numerous debris fields left over from the war. From this blueprint, the so-called Teiwaz Frame was developed and the Hyakuren soon after. Overall, the Hyakuren sported heavy armor allowing it to survive in the large dense debris fields in the Outer Sphere along with the Asteroid Belt. As an aside, this heavy armor also provides the mobile suit with excellent protection from enemy weapons. As a combat mobile suit, the Hyakuren are equipped with a simple heavy machine gun and a single-edged blade for close combat. Though, it can use other weapons if required including the GR-H01 Battle Axe of the Graze Series or other such weapons including Grenade or Rockets. Also, like every modern mobile suit, the Hyakuren was designed to swap out its armor pieces when required. Armament '''JEE-201 100mm Rifle Cannon The basic assault rifle developed for the use of the Hyakuren and its variants by Euro Electronics. Like every other modern-day mobile suit rifle, it is not designed to destroy an armored enemy mobile suit but to suppress it and damage it before moving in for close combat to finish the fight. JEE-205 130mm Assault Rifle A newer rifle developed by Euro Electronics for the use of the to enter a planet's atmosphere without worry safely STH-16 Shiden and its variants, which are now in use by Hyakurens of the Martian Self-Defense Forces. Overall, the rifle is a bit heavier than the older JEE-201 rifle and can at close range heavily damage a more lightly armored mobile suit. JEE-202 Single Edged Blade The Hyakuren's primary close-combat weapon and is designed for quick stabs, as well as, getting in between armor plates of an enemy mobile suit. JEE-203 Knuckle Guard The Knuckle Guard is a new weapon introduced by Euro Electronics around P.D. 323 that was being tested by the Hyakurens of the Turbines Transport Group when they met up with the new private military company Tekkadan. It has since become a weapon used by veteran and ace pilots of Teiwaz and its affiliates. JEE-204 Partizan Another of the new weapons developed by Euro Electronics for the use of the STH-16 Shiden and becomes the primary close-combat weapons of that mobile suit. However, it has since become the weapon of choice for the Hyakurens of the Martian Self-Defense Forces. JEE-103 Four-Barreled Rocket Launcher A secondary weapon in use by the Hyakuren and is often used by ace pilots of Teiwaz for heavy assault missions that require heavy weapons. While not capable of breaching nanolaminated armor it can still damage it from a direct hit therefore used for combating enemy ships. JEE-102 Revolving Grenade Launcher Another of the secondary weapons in use by the Hyakuren and is often mounted underneath the barrels of their JEE-201 Rifle Cannons. It is the primary heavy weapon used by the Hyakurens and can damage nanolaminated armor when hit directly. Some tests have started for different grenade types including flash grenades, and shrapnel grenades. Equipment JEE-E104 Mobile Suit Shield An improvement over the older JEE-E101 Riot Shield first used by the STH-16 Shidens and now sports a thin layer of nanolaminate paint across the front of the shield which allows it tank enemy shots from cannons and rifles of enemy mobile suits. However, unlike the nanolaminate paint on the mobile suit itself the Shield's paint is not as strong due to the distance from the mobile suit's Ahab Reactor. Even then every little bit of protection helps in the long run. Also, included is a modular mount on the back of the shield which allows it to be mounted onto the mobile suit's arm or back allowing the mobile suit to use both of its hands for some things. JEE-E202 Gauntlet Shields Originally developed as auxiliary equipment for the STH-16 Shiden these small shields have since been improved similarly to the JEE-E104 Shields and are used in place of the larger Mobile Suit Shield when needed depending on pilot or mission preference. JEE-E102 Hover Booster Developed for the use of the Ground Combat Package of the Hyakuren it became better known when it was used by the two STH-05R Rouei units deployed by the Turbines group in support of their ally Tekkadan while on Earth. It has since become standard equipment for the Hyakurens in use by Martian Self Defense Forces. JEE-E107 Drop Capsule A piece of equipment similar to the Orbital Drop Shields in use by Gjallarhorn just a bit larger and capable of carrying two mobile suits instead of one. It allows a pair of mobile suits to safely enter a planet's atmosphere without worry. JEE-M103 Kutan Type-III The Kutan Series Booster Sleds have been in general use by Teiwaz and its affailates for several years. Originally developed for the use of transporting cargo it has since started to be used to carry mobile suits for long distance travel when required. JEE-M101 Kutan Type-I The first of the Kutan Series Booster Sleds and is mainly the short-ranged counterpart to the Type-III. It has since been used as attachable booster engines for mobile suits on patrol around its base ship. Variants STH-05 Hyakuren - Martian Self Defense Force Verison After the introduction of the STH-16 Shiden in early P.D. 325 the remaining Hyakurens of Teiwaz where mainly used a heavier counterpart to the Shiden and for heavy combat missions. It was only when a new Heavy Armor Set was developed for the Shiden and the ability to buy Ahab Reactors from Gjallarhorn after the McGillis Fareed Incident that saw the Hyakuren totally removed from service by Teiwaz and its affiliates. The remaining Hyakurens would then be sold off to the newly formed Martian Self Defense Forces as its primary mobile suit. These mobile suits would then be upgraded a bit and given a whole new paint scheme to reflect their new owner. This upgrade generally removes the heavy armor of the original Teiwaz Version and replaced with new medium-scale armor that is based on combat data from the three UGY-R41L Landman Rodis in use by Tekkadan. This new armor scheme allows the Hyakurens to easily operate both on the Martian Surface or in deep space just with the switching out of its thruster unit. The MSDF would also equip these mobile suits with the newer JEE-205 rifle and JEE-204 Partizan of the Shidens instead of the older weapons, which combined with the new JEE-E104 Mobile Suit Shields these mobile suits gives these machines a quite different appearance from when they served Teiwaz. STH-05 Hyakuren - Teiwaz Verison The so-called Teiwaz Verison is only called that after the Martian Self Defense Force bought the remaining Hyakurens from Teiwaz. Therefore, this version is the originally deployed variant that doesn't have the upgrades or additions made by the Martian Self Defense Force to their new mobile suits. STH-05/*C Hyakuren Custom - Single Number Custom Verison The so-called Single Number Custom Variant are the original nine prototype Hyakurens that were personally handed out to several Teiwaz affiliates and subsidiaries by Teiwaz Chairman McMurdo Barriston. These units were quite superior over the regular Hyakurens with pure Jovian half-metal used in the frame as well as braces for the unit's Ahab reactor. Currently, only seven of these machines are still active and remain in the ownership of their original pilots. A couple have been converted to Rouei Variants to better use them in combat. Others just remain as oversized trophies of their pilots, who have converted to the Shiden or newer STH-20 Hekija mobile suits. STH-05P Hyakuren Plus The STH-05P Hyakuren Plus is a new unit developed by Copernicus Heavy Industries originally test out the new Io Frame which had been in development for the STH-16 Shiden. After the end of this testing, the six prototype units were interned and stored for later use. It was only after Teiwaz Chairman McMurdo Barriston choose to sell the remaining Hyakurens to the new Martian Self Defense Force that these prototype units would be brought out of storage and equipped with a new JEE-E200 Communication Antenna and several other upgrades these units would also be sold-off to the MSDF. Sporting a deeper red paint job and the new communication antenna these units have since become ace-level command units for the MSDF. Overall, these newer units are quite superior over the original Hyakuren, on the level of the Single Number Custom Variants, mainly thanks to using the superior Io Body Frame over the older Teiwaz Frame. Also, thanks to this are that these units sport a superior sensor suite in part to the use of the Io Frame which combined with the command communication antenna give it's pilot the ability to easily command a battlefield. STH-05R Rouei When the Hyakuren was first being developed by Copernicus some thought went into making the new mobile suit capable of not only combat in space but on the planet as well. Mainly due to swabbing out lighter-weight armor pieces for the heavier armor needed for the Hyakuren in space. However, this was never made a reality due to Teiwaz and its affiliates only operating in the Jovian Outer Sphere with some work in the Martian Sphere never really on planet. It was only when the Turbines Transport Group was helping their new ally Tekkadan in the Earth Sphere that this option would be used, rather modified by Turbines head mechanic Eco Turbines. This modification was needed due to the Hyakuren is known to many in the Earth Sphere as a Teiwaz machine and icon of the Outer Spheres, therefore, some way of hiding this connection was needed. The result of this was the Rouei Variant which took the Ground Combat Package developed by Copernicus and upgraded it to make the mobile suit look different from its Hyakuren sister-unit. It also sported the ability to be used not only on the ground but in space as well where its lighter armor allowed it to have higher mobility than the regular Hyakuren. After the Battle of Edmonton Teiwaz and Copernicus were quite impressed with the combat data drawn from these two original Rouei units which does see the start the development of the STH-16 Shiden. Also, Copernicus would produce another dozen Rouei machines on the only recently completed Hyakuren production line to gather further combat data. It would be thanks to these new machines that allowed Copernicus to fully finish development of the Shiden, the first ever brand-new non-Gjallarhorn aligned machine to be mass produced since the end of the Calamity Wars. The remaining units of this small production run would be converted back to Hyakurens and be grouped up with their remaining older sister units to be sold to the Martian Self Defense Forces. History The STH-05 Hyakuren was originally developed during the later months of the Calamity Wars as a high input armored mobile suit which was never fully produced and existed only as a blueprint. This aged blueprint would three hundred years later be recovered by a team from Teiwaz who would use this blueprint to start production of their very own mobile suit line. However, due to no real way of producing their own Ahab Reactors they were left with old Calamity War era reactors recovered from various debris fields that were spread all across the Outer Spheres. This prevented Teiwaz and their primary heavy equipment manufacturer Copernicus Heavy Industries from fully mass producing their new mobile suit. Even then, Copernicus and Teiwaz didn't let that stop them and managed to produce forty-four units of this machine including the nine prototype machines originally developed by Copernicus for testing and general evaluation of the mobile suit. These forty-four machines would soon prove themselves against marauding pirates and mercenaries across the Outer Spheres. This would see Teiwaz to become one of the more powerful groups in the Outer Sphere next to Gjallarhorn, and the Hyakuren becomes quite well-known thanks to this. Overtime Copernicus would move to perfect their newly built mobile suit production line and introduce new aftermarket parts and replacement parts for the already built Hyakuren. However, thanks in part to not capable of producing their own Ahab reactors only a handful of new Hyakurens were built by Copernicus after the first forty-four. It was only when Tekkadan became part of Teiwaz and their capture of numerous Gjallarhorn built Ahab Reactors that allowed Copernicus to look into developing new mobile suits. At first, this would be a dozen brand-new units of the Rouei variant which were used in conjunction with their Hyakuren brethren. Over a year later would see the start of the development of the STH-16 Shiden, which would be a brand-new design and nothing connecting it to the Calamity Wars, unlike the Hyakuren. The Hyakuren itself would remain in general use by Teiwaz and its affiliate groups across the Outer Spheres but this was mostly in conjunction with the new Shiden. All but the private mercenary company Tekkadan which had officially joined Teiwaz after the Battle of Edmonton who would primarily use new Shidens instead of Hyakurens. The Hyakuren would remain in general service of Teiwaz to support the new Shiden for several months after its introduction and it was only after the McGillis Fareed Incident that would see the Hyakuren starting to be recalled from combat. This comes about after Chairman McMurdo Barriston made a deal with Gjallarhorn through Rustal Eston that would allow Teiwaz, mostly Copernicus, to purchase new Ahab Reactors directly from Gjallarhorn instead of recovering aging reactors from old wrecks in exchange Gjallarhorn would receive discounted prices on half-metal that Teiwaz had start to mine from several places on Mars. This would allow Copernicus to move fully with mass production of the Shiden which would see the Hyakuren to fully retired from service with Teiwaz thanks to this. Only a handful of Hyakurens remained in use, mainly Rouei variants and those in use by smaller affiliate groups, but generally, the Hyakuren was pretty much no longer in general use by Teiwaz. Thankfully, the Hyakuren would be saved from the breakers by McMurdo Barriston himself who had noticed the new Martian Union was looking to purchase mobile suits for their new Martian Self Defense Forces. The Arbau Defense Forces were willing to sell their old AEB-06L Hloekk Graze Mobile Suits to the Martian Union for cheap but these machines were quite underwhelming compared to other mobile suits. Barriston then decided to see about selling the remaining Hyakurens to the Martian Union since he had a sort of a soft spot for Mars after Tekkadan had proved themselves years before. The remaining fifty-two Hyakurens, which include the remaining thirty-eight original Hyakurens, the six of the Hyakuren Plus prototypes, and ten of the converted Rouei production run were sold to Mars for cheap. All of which went under a through upgrade cycle by Martian engineers led by the Kassapa Factory, which included several former members of Tekkadan along their numbers. Therefore, the Hyakuren went from being the iconic mobile suit of Teiwaz and its affiliate groups to being the new mobile suit of choice for the newborn Martian Self Defense Force. Of which these red-painted machines become quite a common sight in the Martian Sphere for several years. Appearances Iron-Blooded Orphans The Hyakuren appears in the original Iron-Blooded Orphans series during the show's first season. This version of the Hyakuren is the original so-called Teiwaz Version. Later during Season Two of the show a few Hyakurens show up first after the control of the Turbines, along a Rouei or two and later another couple Hyakurens show up under the control of JPT Trust. From the Ashes The Hyakuren is mentioned in two of the small one-shot stories that make up this larger story. Phoenix Rising Notes & Trivia *The Martian Self Defense Force custom colors were done by Bryant Molirse of the Mechatalk Forums. *The idea that Tekkadan captured numerous Gjallarhorn Ahab Reactors is something created by this author to explain how Teiwaz was able to build so many Shidens when they only managed to produce a few dozen Hyakurens using salvaged Calamity War-era Ahab reactors. External links *STH-05 Hyakuren Page on Gundam Wikia *STH-05/AC Hyakuren Amida's Custom Page on Gundam Wikia Category:Mobile Suits Category:Post Disaster Category:Limited Production Mobile Suits